Fourth day! - Lima - April 28th, 2011

Fourth day! - Lima

            Ansell and I revisited downtown to see some things we had missed the first time around. When we arrived we saw that the Presidential Palace’s Book Fair was open and we looked around. 

There wasn’t much of interest though and we were off to the San Francisco Cathedral to see the famous cathedral.

            The Cathedral itself was also famous for it’s pigeons, which numbered in the hundreds. Every so often they would all rise up and make several laps around the courtyard before settling again.

            It is also famous for it’s catacomb graveyard. We weren’t able to take pictures, but the catacombs were very large. Some of the bones were arranged in interesting patterns and other graves were nothing more than a deep pit filled with bones.

            As we headed back to the main plaza we noticed a huge amount of military. There were rows of military in dress around the plaza, along with those dressed in riot gear. We found out that the President of Mexico was visiting, hence the pomp and circumstance. I took a video of the mini-parade and the President of Mexico’s car (since you couldn’t see the actual President). I will post it on Facebook eventually.

            After the parade Ansell and I took a bus into the other side of Lima and up the mountain. The other side of Lima is much poorer and very run down. The bus ride up the mountain was pretty scary as the road was narrow and winding with sheer drops. I eventually had to hide my face in Ansell’s sweater until we arrived at the top. The views were spectacular.

The white things are actually a huge graveyard

            We also had a view of the little ghetto town in the mountain. Such little crude shanties speak to the extreme poverty Peru suffers, which is kept far away from the city center.

            The end of our day was spent visiting Fountain Park. A park filled with different fountains and water shows. It was very cool! Along with the regular fountains, there were fountains that we could walk through and play in.

There was also a huge fountain, which did water shows complete with colors and music. I hope to post a video of that too on Facebook.

            After a nice dinner overlooking the beach near our hostel we headed to bed. It was a very full day that ended in very wet feet. :D